US air force threatens to destroy property next door to Area 51 after owners refuse to sell

They say they’ve been bombed, shot at, and intimidated for 60 years. But the Sheahans don’t want to give up their land to the “neighbours from hell.”

Members of the Sheahan family: Area 51 can be seen in the background.

The family own the 400 acre Groom Mine, which overlooks Area 51, one of America’s most closely guarded military secrets and a mecca for UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists from all over the world. Located in the Nevada Desert, the military base officially known as “The Nevada Test and Training Range” borders on the Sheahan’s property, which has been in the family since 1889.

The family’s allegations range from illegal government searches and checkpoints to military jet attacks on the mine and a devastating cancer cluster that has seen the premature deaths of several members.

But the final straw — and the one that drove the Sheahans to end an extraordinary six decades of silence — came last month when the US Air Force (USAF) gave them an ultimatum: sell up for $5.2m or watch it seized and destroyed for free.